


Merry Little Minuet

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Inspired by Music, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 11:44:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2023881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The song always made his father smile. Written for JWP #25.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merry Little Minuet

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: More of a character study than anything else. Song brought to you by random play and my strange collection of music. And absolutely no beta. This was written in a huge rush. You have been warned.
> 
> JWP #25: Moved by Music. Choose any music that moves you, and use that as the inspiration for today's entry. Make sure to note what music you chose in the header information - and a link to it would be even better!

_They’re rioting in Africa,_  
 _They’re starving in Spain,_  
 _There’s hurricanes in Florida,_  
 _And Texas needs rain._  
  
John first heard the song when he was very small. It was on one of his father’s records, one he didn’t play very often, but one that never failed to bring a smile to his lips when he did. It was a collection of songs by some American group, and John never did learn how his father came by it, or what that record really meant to him. Nor did the young John really understand the lyrics. He just knew that the bouncy tune made him smile, too.  
  
 _The whole world is festering with unhappy souls,_  
 _The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles,_  
 _Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch,_  
 _And I don’t like anybody very much!_  
  
Later on, the young man John became understood the lyrics very well. Their cheerful cynicism suited the novice soldier, and the morbid humor equally well-matched the junior doctor and his awareness of mortality.  Some of the countries the song spoke of no longer existed, of course, and national rivalries had changed, but the underlying sentiments were still sound. There would always be disasters in the world; some natural, like droughts, but far more brought on mankind by mankind.  There was nothing more certain in life than some group hating some other group, for whatever reasons. And like as not, he’d find himself in the thick of it, as a soldier and a doctor both.  
  
All the same, John still liked most people. He understood the general misanthropy of the one line, but he never shared it.  
  
(Later on still, after meeting the Holmes brothers, he’d think to himself that most people would ascribe that line to Sherlock, but they’d be dead wrong. John knew Sherlock liked him, and Lestrade, and Mrs Hudson, and Angelo, and others; far more people than he’d ever admit. He didn’t always understand people, and he disliked many of them, but he liked too many people for that line to really apply to him no matter how he pretended otherwise.  No, it was absolutely Mycroft’s line. )  
  
 _There’s rioting in Africa,_  
 _There’s strife in Iran,_  
 _What Nature doesn’t do to us_  
 _Will be done by our fellow man…_  
  
“What’s that you’re watching?”  
  
John startled and reflexively closed the lid on his laptop, cutting off the music. He hadn’t heard Sherlock come into the sitting-room, too lost in the music and the memories it brought back. “Nothing really.”  
  
Sherlock’s quicksilver eyes flickered across his face, clearly disbelieving his answer, looking for data that would tell him the truth. Then he blinked, and the expression vanished. “Then come on, John. Lestrade’s got an interesting little problem for us.”  
  
John forgot all about the song, and about the incident, in the excitement that followed. It was only many weeks later, when he heard a familiar, bouncy tune coming from Sherlock’s violin, that he remembered.  
  
And John smiled.  
  
Excerpts are from the song "The Merry Little Minuet" as performed by The Kingston Trio. They performed several versions of it over their long career, but the closest version to the one used for the inspiration for this can be listened to at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB7gkcNx83M>. (Note: the video is someone else's creation, and contains some disturbing images. If you just want to know what the song sounds like, or hear all of the lyrics, you might want to switch to another program while the music plays.)


End file.
